UNIST Professor Selected as Recipient of SGL Carbon Award

Dr. Rodney S. Ruoff, Director of the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM) at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor in the School of Natural Science at UNIST, has been selected to receive the SGL Carbon (Skakel) Award for his outstanding and many contributions to the field of carbon materials.

When asked about what receiving this award had meant to him, Dr. Ruoff said “I am honored to have been chosen for this award for my scientific contributions on a variety of carbon materials, and also note the hard work and dedication from many students and postdocs who have worked in my group, as well as from the colleagues that I have been fortunate to collaborate with. Looking to the future—I feel my best work is ahead of me!”

The SGL Carbon Award, sponsored by SGL Carbon Group and the American Carbon Society, is an international award given every 3 years to an individual whose overall contributions and achievements have significantly influenced the progress of the science and/or technology of carbon materials, as exemplified by the late George Skakel Sr. and George Skakel Jr.

Dr. Ruoff has made pioneering discoveries in carbon science for more than 20 years, including discoveries leading to a deeper understanding of nanostructures and 2D materials, especially novel carbon materials (fullerenes, nanotubes, diamond nanorods, graphite oxide, graphene oxide, graphene, among others). His fundamental research efforts on (i) the solubility phenomena of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene platelets, and of (ii) studies of graphene platelets including for use in electrodes for electrical energy storage, as well as his work on (iii) the mechanics of carbon nanotubes and (iv) the chemical vapor deposition of graphene, have had the additional impact of greatly accelerating industrial developments.

His extensive studies of the growth of graphene by chemical vapor deposition and of the chemistry and uses of graphene oxide (such as in polymer composites, in electrodes, in thin films, in ‘paper-like’ materials) and for use in electrical energy storage triggered an extraordinary surge in research studies worldwide. As one example, his work with his team on graphene-based ultracapacitors, published in Nano Letters in 2008, has initiated a worldwide effort on the use of graphene materials in electrodes in electrical energy storage systems.